Collaboration with mentor Francois Naude

16 April 2020

Following his passion for wine, Francois Naude moved from Pretoria to the Cape after a career as a pharmacist. Francois and our stepfather, Marc Wiehe, teamed up to build L’Avenir, the farm Marc bought in 1992.

During his career as the winemaker at L’Avenir Francois was recognised by the wine industry for the pioneering role he played in producing wine of top international standard on a consistent basis. Francois became a member of the prestigious Cape Independent Winemakers Guild in 1996 and upon his retirement from winemaking in 2005 he became honorary president of the guild.

Francois was awarded with seven ABSA Top 10 awards during his winemaking career for the L’Avenir Pinotage. He also won the Chenin Blanc Challenge in 1998, won six gold medals at the Chardonnay de Monde in France and is widely recognized as someone who has made a large impact on the South African wine industry.

After his retirement from formal winemaking in 2005, Francois started to produce the iconic Le Vin de Francois which is a Pinotage blend made up of the best barrels produced by a number of Estates in the Stellenbosch region, amongst other L’Avenir, Kanonkop, Simonsig and Beyerskloof. This wine was sold at an auction once a year where the lucky invitees scrambled to secure a couple of precious cases, and 2020 will be the first since 2008 when there will be no auction anymore and the wine will be introduced to the whole world via commercial ways.

Deux Freres’ own Stephan du Toit started working with Francois in 2000 at L’Avenir in the cellar. In the five years they worked together, Stephan was influenced by Francois’ passion for quality wines, his precision in the winemaking process, and his uncompromising quest to give the best possible expression of the L’Avenir terroir.

We at Deux Freres were greatly honoured when Francois decided to produce his first wine since 2005 in our cellar. Francois and Stephan enjoyed the old camaraderie and there were lots of jokes and laughter.

Francois we enjoyed having you with us and we hope that this is the first of many harvests at Deux Freres.